Cannot Wait to Get to Heaven - Fannie Flagg [48]
“Thank you, Elner, I’m glad you enjoyed them. We tried to come up with a lot of nice things to balance it out, because regretfully, in life bad things do happen.”
“And we just hate it when they do,” said Dorothy sadly.
Elner said, “Well, now that you mentioned it, people do wonder about why they happen.”
Raymond looked very sympathetic and said, “I know they do, and I don’t blame them, but in order for them to have free will, I had to set up concrete laws of cause and effect, or else it wouldn’t have worked.” He shrugged. “I had no choice, what else could I do?”
“Well, Raymond,” Elner said thoughtfully, “I know it’s always easy to second-guess anything, but you might want to rethink the free will thing. I know that was Luther Griggs’s problem, if he could do anything he wanted, he usually got himself in a lot of trouble.”
Raymond nodded. “I understand, and believe me, Elner, we thought long and hard about free will, but we didn’t want to force people to do things.”
Dorothy added, “You can’t force people to love you, or each other, for that matter.”
Raymond agreed. “No, but we did give them everything we thought they would need to help: logic, reason, compassion, a great sense of humor, but…whether or not they use it is up to them. And after that, all you can do is love them, and hope for the best.” He then looked over at Dorothy. “I think it was the hardest thing we had to do, let them make their own mistakes….”
“Oh, by far,” Dorothy said.
Then Raymond said to Elner, “But I suppose everybody feels that way, you know they have to leave the nest…but you just hate to see them go.”
“I see your point,” said Elmer. “When Linda left home, Norma went to bed for six months with a rag on her head….”
Suddenly a bell went off in the kitchen, and Dorothy jumped up.
“Oh, good!” she said. “The cake’s done, let me run and take it out of the oven, I’ll be right back.”
Elner perked up at the thought of cake.
Norma’s Lady Minister
After Irene Goodnight had a good cry over Elner, she pulled herself together and called Neva and ordered her flowers and then wondered what she could do to help Norma. She would be so upset, she was going to need all the help and support she could get. Irene would start fixing some food, to take over to their house. Maybe some baked chicken, a green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, and a Bundt cake. No onions or bell peppers. Nothing too spicy. When you are upset, you need bland and simple cream-based food. Before she went to the kitchen to start preparing, she decided to call Reverend Susie Hill, Norma’s lady minister over at the Unity Church, and alert her.
She dialed her home number.
“Hello?”
“Susie, it’s Irene Goodnight.”
“Well, hello, how are you?”
“Just fine, but I’m afraid I’m calling with some bad news. Elner Shimfissle just died, so I wanted to let you know.”
“Oh no!” said a surprised Susie. “What happened?”
“Wasps got her, knocked her clean out of her tree. Norma and Macky are up in Kansas City at the Caraway Hospital right now, so you might want to call or something.”
“Oh, of course…yes…thank you for letting me know.”
Susie put the phone down, and felt terrible. Not only was Norma a member of her congregation, she was also a good friend. When she had first moved to town, she had met Norma at Weight Watchers and had liked her immediately. Norma was such a lovely woman, a classy woman, really, always so beautifully and tastefully dressed. Susie had been so pleased when Norma had started coming to her church; even though she was Norma’s minister, it was Norma she confided in, and asked for her help and advice about many things. Norma had helped her decorate her small town home, and had sent her husband, Macky, over to fix her pipes in the bathroom. But right now she knew poor Norma must be devastated. Norma had worried so much about Elner and had even brought